05 May 2009

The Vespasian Psalter dates back to the first quarter of the 8th century and is now in the British Library. It is one of the earliest, if not the earliest, surviving manuscript with historiated initials. It also contains an Anglo-Saxon gloss on the Latin text and again is one of the earliest, if not the earliest, surviving examples of translation of part of the Bible into English. The Medieval Writing site has more information about Psalters (click the links in the text to go to the very useful glossary of terms), while Fathom's Introduction to Medieval Manuscripts sets t the Vespasian Psalter in a wider context.

The manuscript came to the British Library from Sir Robert Cotton's library. Each bookcase contained the bust of a Roman emperor and this particular Psalter was in the case which had the bust of Vespasian, hence its name.

The above picture shows King David as the author of the Psalms (public domain image from wikicommons). The British Library's Introduction to Illuminated Manuscripts (scroll down) shows the same page in its context opposite a historiated initial for Psalm 26 (27 in the usual numbering for English Bibles) showing David and Jonathan.